
I practice internal martial arts and traditional weapons methods in the Pacific Northwest.
Chinese Martial Arts
Since 2005, my primary training interest and focus has been developing skill at Chinese internal martial arts, including:
- Northern
Wú (
吴 ) style Tàijíquán - Yin Bāguàzhǎng
- Hebei Xíngyìquán
as maintained in Yin Cheng Gong Fa North America, including traditional methods of sword, saber and spear.
I became a lineal student of
Zhang Yun laoshi in 2015 — he
studied directly under the late Grandmaster Wang Peisheng
in Beijing.
Yuèshān-guan [

Japanese Martial Arts
Yuèshān-guan is read Gassankan in Japanese. I practiced two old styles of kenjutsu for a number of years before moving to Seattle:
- Jikishinkage-ryū, 2008-2016: chuden [2018] under Dr. David Hall.
- Katori Shintō-ryū, 2005-2015: mokuroku [2010] at Capital Aikikai.
They could not have been more different. Reconciling their differences was much of the focus on Inner Dharma over the years. I have mentored a small number of people in my approach to Jikishinkage-ryū kenjutsu — two of them are now teachers in their own right.
Before that,
I trained as part of an independent
school of aikidō and kempō in NYC.
My dōjō's interest in the Japanese
mountain religion called Shugendō was the impetus
for the creation of the
Inner Dharma (
Mark Raugas
Seattle, WA
